where to start? 9/10/10

This week was FULL of miracles! Honesty it just blows my mind how Heavenly Father keeps sending more and more prepared people right here to Temple Square. So amazing I love it.


MIRACLES
* Sunday morning we met Becky outside the North Visitors Center. A moment later she introduced us to Bill her husband. We began showing them around and asking questions. We soon found out that she was a member but he wasn't. As we went to each location I just watched him and would ask him what he thought. He pretty much would say how he loved the history and seeing it in person. When we got to the Christus tears filled his eyes (even though there were TONS of people all around us) and he said he knew Christ lives today. I told him he had to let the missionaries teach him one more time, and he accepted.

* Sunday afternoon we spotted 2 African American couples from North Carolina and they were BEAUTIFUL! Seriously... straight from a movie. They were laughing and having a good time. I made a funny comment to them and they immediately started asking questions about the temple. One said "Now.. I want you to tell me exactly how I can get inside that building." We said of course we will answer your question but we want to show you. We took them to the Temple replica and they were fascinated!!! Denise and April were the 2 wives and they were touched when they heard that they can be with their families forever, April said "Of course we can! I knew it!" I opened up my Book of Mormon and one of the men took it from my hands and started flipping through the pages.. it was sooo funny! He just kept saying "Wow I need to read this!" So prepared.. and of course they accepted for missionaries. Each of the couples had 2 beautiful girls each.

* Monday afternoon we met Michael from NYC. He was here on business as an attorney. My companion and I were in a laughing mode from a previous contact so we started off really funny with him, just making funny comments and jokes and we will just say that he was very intrigued by us. He just laughed and said it seemed like we were having the time of our lives here. EVERYTHING we shared with him made complete sense tohim. I think the reason for this was because we made sure to pause after sharing a truth and he would think and then nod and say , yes yes that is true. He was SO COOL!

* OK best for last. Yesterday we only had an hour on the square because of RC training. We walked out the NVC to the north gate and found 3 men looking at the map. As soon as we approached them one asked "can you tell me why everything here is so beautiful?" Pepi, John, and Chris were their names and we began by taking them to the Tabernacle. While inside I shared that I LOVE listening to the counsel from a living prophet so I can receive guidance and direction for my personal life. John just looked at me and said "You know I can tell you are sincere because of the smile on your face", then Pepi said, "Ya it's like they are glowing or something, when people love Christ this much- then they glow." So cute! My favorite was showing them the temple display. We try to stand back and let people see and feel for themselves and then come to us for questions if they have any. After about 5 minutes Chris came back and stood next to me. After a moment I looked over at him and asked what do you think? He responded "Indescribable". I knew immediately to promise him that temple could bind him together with his wife and daughters for eternity and gave him the card to fill out. He didn't hesitate but just said thank you and filled out the referral card. The other 2 also referred!!! WAH!!

The RC has been going well also. After discussing some of the issues with president I felt that it was time to be a little more firm with our 10 minute trainings. I told the sisters that this is the Lord's time, that it is not about them anymore, so if they don't like talking on the phone then to get over it! They signed up to be here, so make it work!! haha of course in a much nicer way.. but perhaps my voice got a little loud and everyone was dead silent... It was good though and a lot of sisters said that it was exactly what they needed to hear! I don't like being stern with them, but they aren't little girls anymore (as president would say).

Monday morning at 7:30 AM is our transfer conference. I would say there is a 99.9 % chance that I will be sent outbound.. hah so I am packing my bags today! Maybe I am too hopeful? Really though, I think I will be going. ALASKA! mmm maybe not. But that would be so cool! Wherever it is the Lord sends me I know that there are people there who I need to FIND. So... I'm just a little excited.

Love you all

Sister Carly Jo Porter

la la la I love being a missionary la la la la 9/3/10

So YES I love being a missionary! Every boy AND girl should serve a mission!! I view the world and people and everything so differently now, it is incredible! What an amazing opportunity. gee

Nothing to new or exciting this week :) We have implemented a new training in the referral center that has been very successful. It has been kind of funny because our President is working with all the zone leaders on this new curriculum from the MTC and they have had TONS of training and it takes up all of President's time. We usually meet with him pretty often but this transfer haven't at all. The assistants are wonderful but also have not had the time to meet with us. So Sister Johnson and I went ahead and did what we felt was necessary for the RC, this included a new training and lots of new ideas. Our numbers and attitudes went WAY UP this week and president was just amazed! Hah we told him we just did what the Lord needed us to do :) It has been amazing though to see that so many sisters who highly disliked the referral center now say that "It's fun!" My companion was on that list before this transfer and now she LOVES the RC! The other day we left and she was so happy and thrilled with her phone calls, I almost started to cry... seriously. hah So things are going really well!!

A few mornings ago we finally had a few minutes on the square. We found a beautiful woman from Costa Rica named Patricia. She immediately opened up to us and got very emotional. She is the mother of 2 boys and also a cancer survivor. She said she just views life so differently now and the feeling of Temple Square was exactly how she felt about life at this time. We ended with her at the Christus statue and she was so touched by the spirit. She was an amazing woman and so prepared for the Gospel. She said she had been searching for a church she could attend with her family and was excited to meet the missionaries!... so we all know what will happen :)

So nothing else is new! We have less than 2 weeks left in the transfer. We are all praying that they send a lot of us outbound. There are about 15 sisters that I came with that have not left yet. It will be an exciting transfer conference for sure!

Love you all!

-Sister Carly Jo Porter

AFTER comes the Miracle 8/27/10

We had a wonderful week once again at Temple Square. I cannot believe that it is almost September. What happens to the time? Does time just go by faster as a missionary? I think so....

So my story of the week is a girl named Julie from California, 20yrs old. She was here visiting her sick grandmother and just thought to make a trip by Temple Square. We began showing her around and immediately I could feel that the spirit was so strong. It was a different kind of tour as it was more full of us promising her blessings and reading scriptures to her. She wanted to know everything and explained that she had always wondered why there were so many churches on the earth. We were talking about prayer so I read Alma 37:37 to her and we were silent for a second and she just said "Wow, I never thought of it like that, that he really watches over us in our sleep". She was so wonderful and prepared for the gospel. She was excited for missionaries to teach her and her mom back home. Keep her in your prayers!!

ok ok another miracle. I was in the referral center last night and I was answering the voice mail phone. I answered and began talking to Stephanie from California. She had received a message from another sister and said she had always wanted to learn about our church. After getting to know her I began asking her questions about her own religious background. She said she wasn't very christian because she never knew how to be but she always envied her friend Leslie who was a member. I felt impressed to share with her the first vision. After sharing I just paused and a moment later she responded, "Are you serious? Did that really happen? That's incredible." I was THRILLED!! You would be surprised at how many people respond this way after sharing the restoration. So many people have never heard of Joseph Smith and what really happened. I loved teaching her and when I invited missionaries to come and visit she responded, "YES that would be so perfect!".. ya I know... amazing.

So during this week I have been thinking a lot about the referral center.. obviously... and how my companion and I can improve it. While studying a few mornings ago a came across the topic of Revelation in the True to the Faith book. As I read and pondered I had so many thoughts and ideas come to mind. I quickly wrote them down and shared with my companion. I recognize that I only have 3 weeks left as a referral center director and I really want to do all I can while I am in this calling. So for this next week we will be doing a really unique training with the sisters. The sisters come in shifts throughout the day, there are 5, two hour blocks. Each block we start with a prayer and thought, but now we are adding a 10 minute compact training/role play. We started yesterday and it went so well! We are just reminding the sisters that they can be themselves while on the phone! So... we are very excited to be doing this for at least the next week. It is a little bit exhausting, but SO worth it! :)

Love you all and I LOVE this work. Wherever we may be in life, it is always the perfect time to share this message. Every single person has to hear it. If they don't then they cannot choose to believe it. I love this scripture, "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith." (Ether 12:12) FIRST we must have the faith and share this message. THEN will God work the miracle. But it is always after.


Love you all- have an amazing week!

-Sister Carly Jo Porter

184 missionaries = fun! 8/20/10

Well hello hello everyone

This week was just wondrous of course. The weather is starting to get a little bit cooler which I have mixed feelings about. Summer has gone by WAY faster than I had expected it to. Fall will be beautiful here at Temple Square though or wherever I get sent to... Alaska? This last week we had another wonderful training from our mission president. He is SO inspired and knows exactly what the Lord wants for the sisters at this mission. We are SO HARDWORKING here you would not believe it! I am so impressed that all 184 sisters are willing to adapt, improve, and work work work. There is never any drama like you would imagine or negativity. The spirit is always so strong and we all just LOVE each other. Funniest part of the week was when we had our new clothing guidelines meeting. We were informed that we now have a much broader variety of clothing! The shouting and screaming in that room was hysterical. I am just excited that we get to look a little bit more normal..... we are not 'sisters' we are 'SISTERS'!... From Mama Holmes (mission presidents wife).

Yesterday we were heading to lunch in the Church office building and we were stopped by a security office who said "Sisters I'm going to have you wait there for just a moment" we were directly in front of a sliding door that went into a parking garage. Just a few moments later we stood in awe as the first presidency and then the quorum of the twelve apostles walked by... ALL OF THEM! My companion and I were just hitting each other and trying not to freak out. It was the coolest thing ever! They had just left the Temple and were heading back to the administration building. Then just a few moments later I was blessed to have lunch with my Grandmama and Grandpa Butterfield! It was so fun to spend some time with them. They are both serving service missions here and I love hearing about the work that they are doing as well. How funny that we are serving at the same place?

Miracle of the week would be a tour we took of 20 Asians from California. They were so open, receptive, and asked many questions. A mother and her 12 yr old son Nick were especially interested. Nick would walk next to me in between stops and ask lots of questions and then listen very intently! He told his mom "I want to read that Book of Mormon!" They were so cute and so prepared to hear the Gospel.

I hope you are all doing well at home. I pray that the members of the church can get over their fears of sharing the Gospel and OPEN THEIR MOUTHS more often. I know its hard... but so what!!

love- Sister Carly Jo Porter

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." (2 Nephi 26:24)

true true true :) 8/13/10

Another wonderful week at Temple Square. We were walking to the Temple this morning at 6:30 AM and it was a little bit cold... I just was thinking no no no summer wasn't long enough!! But it is still beautiful here!

Sister Johnson and I had a wonderful first week together. It was full of organizing, training, motor coaches, and tours on the Square. Last Monday we were in the office all morning and finally made ourselves get some fresh air on the square. The moment we stepped on the square we had a tour with a couple from Rome, Italy their names were Maria and Fabio. Fabio is researching temples because he has been assigned to work on the construction for the temple that will soon be built in Rome! He had just returned from a trip to see the Kiev Ukraine temple! They were so sweet and ready to learn everything that they could. We walked around with them and they felt the spirit so powerfully especially when we were teaching them of authority in front of the Priesthood statues. Not only did they readily accept to learn more but they turned the card over and wrote down three of their friends in Italy who we could call for them! As soon as we finished we ran into a family of 3 from Germany. We asked if we could show them the new display of the temple in the South Visitor Center. We were explaining about the restoration when the mother says, "I can't completely understand English but what I feel you are saying is a German term which means, 'the spirit can move mountains'." I told her that was exactly right! Her 2 children were asking questions and together they asked if the missionaries in Germany could come and meet them to teach them more! Of course!! Okay... I'm not finished. We said bye to that family and were walking around the tabernacle when we met Passion from Georgia. She was on her way out to take the shuttle to the airport and we stopped to talk for a minute. She hadn't visited with any of the sisters yet but she was feeling the spirit of temple square very strongly. My companion and I applied what we had been practicing which was being brief and clear in what we taught. She had many questions about the Book of Mormon and expressed interest in having the missionaries come to teach more. We then took the opportunity to PROMISE BLESSINGS that the missionaries and the message they had could change her life if she would keep her heart open. SO SWEET! All of this happened in the space of about 2 hours and my companion and I were jumping for joy! We knew that the Lord had blessed us and literally handed us these precious people to teach and testify to. So wonderful!!

All of our training sessions this week have gone so well! We have 27 new sisters and we split them into 3 groups for our trainings. We had them in our referral center for a 2 hour block to train them in making phone calls. We tried some new things this transfer which have worked out soooooo well! We trained them and then had them each go to a phone and set it up so they would first be calling each other and role playing exactly what they were taught. We gave them a real life scenario and then had them evaluate afterwards. After a few practices we had them begin making real phone calls to non-members and we saw SO many miracles! I couldn't believe how ready, willing, and excited they were to jump right in and start. I was so impressed and learned so much from them!

So the work is going well. My companion and I get along a little bit too well I think. We have a hard time getting to sleep at night because we just talk about EVERYTHING and just crack each other up. She is hilarious and just as weird if not even weirder than I am!! I know.... not possible right? She is great though and keep me on my feet. We also run the canyon every other morning which is a beautiful 3 mile jog and I LOVE it!

The church is true true true! Love you all!
-Sister Carly Jo Porter

2 Nephi 33:10

Still at Temple Square 8/6/10

Well not much to share this week! I have a wonderful new companion Sister Johnson from California and we are the RCDs together. She is a hard worker and I am excited to continue the progression in the referral center. This last week I felt trapped down in the office with a bazillion things to do with all of the new sisters coming in. We have 27 new sisters and they are all so wonderful! 8 sisters were sent outbound and I am praying the next transfer will finally be my time to go! Pray for me! :)

Last night at 8:30 we were finally able to get a few minutes to find on the Square. We met a family of 4 out in front of the temple and started talking to them. We found out that they were from Minnesota and just traveling as a family for a few months. The dad was an in-active member of many many years but he loves the church and never lost his testimony. We took them inside the Tabernacle and had a brief conversation about how the spirit can bless our families. We shared a few scriptures and invited them to have the missionaries come and teach them more. The mother Maryanne didn't hesitate do agree and fill out the referral card. The 2 daughters 18 and 16 were also excited to have them come and share more. The spirit was SO STRONG and you could just see in their eyes how much they wanted the Savior in their lives. Sister Johnson and I were very very happy and we knew that that miracle was a blessing from the Lord!

Good scripture
" Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise" (2 Nephi 2:8)

Oh one more thing.. if you have not been on the new Mormon.org website recently it is incredible!! The church is sooooo true!!

Love- Sister Carly Jo Porter

Hello There!! 7/30/10

Well not much to say this week. My companion and I were doing some office work yesterday morning when I found a whole bunch of referrals that were in our system and had never been sent to the missionaries. HUGE bummer for sure! So I spent a few hours trying to track down addresses and the sisters so we could get the referrals out to the correct mission. I am very grateful though that I was prompted to check the list so that I could find those. Now we will be more aware of it and will have to modify some of our training.

On Tuesday we had a mission activity and went up into the mountains to play games and relax. I realized how long it had been since I had been for a drive when I got sooo car sick while driving up the canyon. It was a beautiful drive though and good to get some fresh air! I have to say though that It was SO STRANGE for me not to be doing missionary work. Of course we had fun but I had to convince myself to just enjoy the time given to us... haha kind of funny. The sisters are so awesome though and it was a good time just to be "us". The best part was the President Holmes was at the center of all the games, including the water balloon fight and hula dancing!!

We had our district meeting a few nights ago and it was centered on the spirit as central to missionary work and really to our lives. The spirit was so strong as we discussed the gifts we can receive from the spirit. In PMG chapter 4 (my favorite chapter) there is a list of scriptures that talk of the spirit. I was going down the list and just was overwhelmed with how much Heavenly Father LOVES us! He has given us a step by step process which if we follow will lead us to becoming like the Savior. BUT we have to look for it and use it. Why would he command us to be perfect if it wasn't possible? It is possible and the SPIRIT is the only way for us to continually be humble and improve. Love it!


I love this work! We have transfer conference on Monday and transfers on Wednesday! I can't believe it! Time is FLYING by. There is a good chance that I could be sent outbound to another state for the next few transfers. Wahh!! If I don't go outbound then most likely I will have a new companion.. so we will see! I have loved serving with sister Lautaha though and would be so blessed if we got to stay together again. So I will serve wherever the Lord wants me to serve!

Love you all! I hope you continually find opportunities to open your mouths and share restored truth. If we don't ever share it how are they supposed to choose to believe it?

Sister Carly Jo Porter

"And as many as would hear their words, unto them they did impart the word of God, without any respect of persons, continually."
(Alma 16:14)